Original news and analysis on international IP policy
World Intellectual Property Organization members working morning, noon and night for over a week in order to agree on texts for broadcasters’ rights and a range of copyright exceptions appear to be finding ways forward on all of them as they head into the final day, according to participants.
The United States House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee today cancelled its briefing on computer equipment shipments to Iran and North Korea authorised by the World Intellectual Property Organization. The committee took the action after WIPO Director General Francis Gurry blocked two senior staff from participating in the meeting.
In the midst of negotiations in the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee, Intellectual Property Watch caught up with WIPO Director General Francis Gurry on 20 July to discuss his vision and priorities for the organisation. Gurry, who took office in 2008 for a six-year term, spoke about rulemaking negotiations, popular IP infrastructure programmes, the coming explosion in trademark law, and calculating the organisation’s development expenditures.
The European Commission (EC) announced today that it would begin a period of public consultation on the subject of internet neutrality.
The World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) is meeting intensively to try to resolve differences on a variety of instruments, from visually impaired readers, to broadcasting, to educational and research institutions. Intellectual Property Watch has the latest texts.
A new study sponsored by the Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA) sheds light on the impact of strong intellectual property protection on access to medicines.
The World Intellectual Property Organization has notified the US congressional committee scheduled to hold a briefing tomorrow on WIPO technical assistance shipments of computers and software to North Korea and Iran that the committee should invite staff who have more direct knowledge of those activities.
International Copyright Conference, Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Amsterdam, 31 August 2012 -
In 2012, the Dutch Copyright Act (the “Auteurswet”) will celebrate its centenary. The Act of 1912 is one of the world’s oldest “living” acts in the authors’ rights tradition.
The World Intellectual Property Organization official who informed the US House Foreign Affairs Committee of WIPO shipments of computers to Iran and North Korea will testify before the committee on Tuesday.
World Intellectual Property Organization Director General Francis Gurry today said the UN agency has cut off its programme of providing computer equipment to countries in order to eliminate doubts in “certain countries” about the programme as it relates to Iran and North Korea, and said he is moving swiftly to establish an independent review. He also said that he would authorise any WIPO official with competence for the programme to testify about it if asked.
The World Intellectual Property Organization today announced a new policy for dealing with countries sanctioned under the United Nations and has discontinued the provision of computer hardware to countries such as North Korea and Iran. It said its past assistance is being reviewed by relevant UN sanctions committees, but that it believes it was not in violation.
A new system to more effectively licence technology and facilitate the trading of intellectual property rights will come online later this year - and an increasing number of countries are taking notice.